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By Michael Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
Following a rainout on Thursday, the defending Division I South and Eastern Mass champion Wellesley High School baseball team hosted Barnstable at Sprague Field on Friday afternoon for a pivotal early-season showdown.
And with it came some history.
With the game remaining tied after seven full, sophomore catcher Holt Fletcher sent the Raiders (3-2) home happy with a walk-off, two-run home run to left field in the bottom of the eighth inning.
A humbled Fletcher described the feeling of hitting his first career walk-off on varsity following the win.
“It was a good feeling,” said Fletcher. “We were just trying to get a win. We battled hard today and didn’t have everything go our way, but I was just trying to get a good pitch to hit and I saw a first-pitch fastball and was able to turn on it.”
The Raiders put multiple men on base in each of the first two innings, but were unable to drive in the go-ahead run after a baserunning error at third put an end to the top of the first and a pair of shallow fly-outs left the bases loaded for Wellesley in the second. Along with needing to produce at the plate with the bases loaded, Wellesley head coach Rob Kane says that driving in those early runs, as well as making the right defensive plays, are a few of the things he and his team need to work on as the season moves forward.
“We did some things correctly and we did some things that we need to improve on,” said Kane. “One of our big things to start the season was that we want to learn and are we learning, or are we just going to continue to make mistakes? We had four errors and a blunder on the bases in the first inning running into an out at third base, and we should have scored that run. So there are some things that we need to work on, but we did do a really nice job with our base hit bunting today. We had six hits in the first two innings, three hits in each one of those innings, and we didn’t score a run, which you don’t see all too often.”
Barnstable drove home the game’s first run in the top of the third with a double to center field, a passed ball to advance the runner to third, and a groundout deep in the hole at short to plate the man in from third. Wellesley ace Henry Weycker (four and two-thirds innings, six strikeouts, one earned run) responded with a strikeout before an inning-ending groundout to short.
Kai Grocki cracked a double down the third baseline with two outs in the bottom of the third, but the Raiders were unable to drive him in after a groundout to the pitcher ended the inning.
Weycker earned a pair of strikeouts to begin the top of the fourth before allowing a single and then getting a fly out to right to end the inning. The Raiders were sent down in order in the bottom half, and the game remained scoreless entering the fifth.
Grocki came on in relief of Weycker with men on first and second and two outs in the top of the fifth and struck out the first man he faced on four pitches to get the Raiders out of the inning. Wellesley was able to put runners at first and second with two outs in the home half of the fifth, thanks to single by Colin Blasko with a bunt down the third baseline and a rip to center by Weycker, but a deep fly out to center by Grocki ended the inning with Barnstable still ahead 1-0.
Fletcher gunned a man down attempting to steal to record the first out of the sixth inning for Wellesley, and Grocki followed up by getting a fly out to right and a groundout to second to end the inning.
John Woernle began the bottom of the sixth for Wellesley with a bunt single. Max Zajec followed it up with a single to center to put men at first and second with no outs. Following a lineout to right by Fletcher, a ground ball to short and a wide throw to first base on an attempted 6-4-3 double play by Barnstable allowed Woernle to run home from third and tie the game before a fly out to center ended the inning.
Fletcher gunned down another runner attempting to steal to end the top of the seventh inning for Wellesley, but the Raiders were unable to plate the winning run in the bottom half. The game went to extras. Woernle came on in relief for the Raiders and recorded a strikeout and a pair of groundouts to set Wellesley up with the chance to win it in the bottom half.
Woernle drew a walk to begin the bottom of the eighth before Zajec grounded into a fielder’s choice at second base. On the first pitch of the ensuing at-bat, Fletcher crushed a first-pitch fastball over the left field fence for a walk-off two-run home run, giving the Raiders the 3-1 victory.
“Overall. I thought that we gave ourselves a chance to win late in the game by having our pitchers come in and do a nice job. For example, Kai Grocki came in cold and whoever he faced it seemed like it was pretty quick getting those outs. John Woernle did a nice job for us for two innings, and John wasn’t even a pitcher last year. So, we got guys coming in during a tie game situation getting outs for us, and now that’s something we can count on going forward. Grocki and Woernle did a really nice job for us there, and as for Holt Fletcher, it’s always a cool thing to walk-off on a home run like that. I can’t recall that ever happening here in all the games that we’ve played - a walk-off home run like that. You see it on TV. It’s pretty cool and when you get to experience it with everybody waiting for you at home-plate. That’s something he’ll remember for the rest of his life, so that’s pretty cool.”
As far as Fletcher’s defensive play, coach Kane says that he’s proud of the way his catcher has produced with his arm to begin the season.
“That’s three caught-stealings this year now in five games, so Holt has been doing a really nice job for us,” said Kane. “We continue to work up back there with things like keeping balls in front of him … or not allowing passed balls and things like that. I know Holt, and each one of our guys knows that there is always something that we can work on and get better at, but Holt’s doing a really nice job for us behind the plate.”
Fletcher says that arm strength was a key aspect of his offseason training, but also gave credit to his middle infield executing tags on each of his two caught-stealings on the afternoon.
“All offseason, I was trying to work on some arm strength,” said Fletcher. “The guys at second with our shortstop and second baseman were able to execute and put the tags on those runners. It was a great feeling to get that win.”
For funny and incisive sports analysis, follow Mike Flanagan on his personal Twitter at @fLAno0, or read his blog at www.flannylive.wordpress.com.
